The 2019 Annual Mayne Island Beach Cleanup on Sunday April 7th was a huge success thanks to the record number of community volunteers who contributed their time and resources. We had 137 volunteers participate, and together they removed 1,712 kg of human trash from shorelines around Mayne Island.
In addition to the many shoreline helpers, this year there was a team of volunteers working above and below the water to clean up years of accumulated human detritus from below Miner’s Bay dock. Present at the event was Roy Mulder who produced an underwater video of the cleanup effort. Check out the video here.
2019 Cleanup Stats
| By Material | Total Weight (Kg) |
| Plastics | 584 |
| Wood | 389 |
| misc. | 191 |
| Tires (including tires filled with stryfoam) | 184 |
| Styrofoam | 97 |
| Boat | 68 |
| Metal | 56 |
| Styrofoam & concrete float | 49 |
| fiberglass | 43 |
| Rope | 41 |
| Crab trap floats | 10 |
| Total | 1712 |
| By Location | Beach Captain | Total Weight (Kg) |
| David Cove, Oyster Bay, Reef Bay | Irene Barrett | 435 |
| Bennett Bay | Mike Nadeau | 295 |
| Campbell Bay | Bill Hayward | 230 |
| Edith Point | Peter Askin | 151 |
| Miners Bay Dock | Bill Jamieson | 130 |
| Georgina Point & Maude Bay | Len Epp | 127 |
| Gallagher & Piggott Bays | Kim Harris | 126 |
| Miners Bay | Mayne School | 93 |
| St. John Point/ Kadonaga Bay | Marian MacLean | 58 |
| Village Bay | Patricia Janvrin | 24 |
| Briggs Landing | Jeannine Dodds | 24 |
| Horton Bay | Sue Duncan | 19 |
| Total | 1712 |
While community beach cleanups alone will not solve the global issue of ocean pollution, they are an important component in reducing the harmful effects of human trash in our local environment. Each item removed reduces the accumulation of microplastics on our shores. An investigation of the upper intertidal area of Piggott Bay Beach is a real eye-opener! It’s amazing to think that mass production of plastics has only been around for 70 years…. For more information on ocean plastics, please read an article by Kelly Fretwell here.
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